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RACT FROM AN ADDRESS 

BY 



Rev. Daniel Freeman Bradley 

PASTOR OF 

Pilgrim Congregational Church 

CLEVELAND, O. 

At New England Society Banquet 
Dec. 22ncl, 191(3 

"WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT" 



COMPLIMENTS OF 

The New England Society 

CLEVELAND. O. 
Charles William Burrows, 

PRESIDENT 



,73 ^^ 



In my judgment the man who best repre- 
sents the New England spirit of our time in 
his personality, in his temperament, in his ed- 
ucation, in his sane religious hope, and in his 
freedom from hysteria, in his belief in God 
and his confidence in men and his loyalty ti' 
the laws of his country, and his sympathy 
with men of all colors under the flag, is that 
New Englander, graduate of Yale and citizen 
of Ohio, who today occupies the place of 
greatest ruler among the nations of mankind 
I know that jackdaws are pecking at him — 
that the frogs in the ooze are croaking at 
him — that the buzzards in the trees are flap- 
ping their foul wings at him — that all the bats 
and all the owls and all the vampires are do- 
ing their best to discredit him. But there's 
no case against this man who inherits in his 
blood and in his training the finest of the New 
England qualities. I like his loyalty to his 
friend (Ballinger), whom he believes to be 
honest and competent, and that he has not 
listened to those who would indict and con- 
vict and punish a man in the newspapers and 
m'a'g,azines without a hearing. I like a man 
wu®,*iike Mayor Gaynor, is not afraid of that 
most irresponsible of tyrants that has arisen 
in public life — the unscrupulous newspaper — 
the unscrupulous magazine. I like him for 
his loyalty to the Constitution of the United 
States and his refusal to let himself slump 
into becoming the great Pooh Bah of Ameri 
can politics, the President, the Congress, and 
the Judiciary, all packed in one. I like him 
for his great patience and courtesy even to 



men who upon him have exhausted the vocab- 
ulary of vituperation. I have w^atched him 
with thrilling interest as he took up his her 
culean labors to secure for the American 
people, by due process of law and by delib 
erate decisions of the courts, what they have 
been clamoring for in vain — namely the curb- 
ing of the big corporations, the crushing of 
the dishonest and disreputable combines — and 
the punishing of the great rascals in high 
places. I have seen him bring about the es- 
tablishment of a juster law for the railroads — 
a Tariff Court and a Commerce Court for the 
trial of commerce causes — the establishment 
of postal savings for the protection of earn- 
ings — a taxation of all corporations doing in- 
terstate commerce business — and submission 
to the legislatures of the states of an amend 
ment, to make possible an income tax. What 
four Presidents in twenty-five years have 
sought, in vain, to do, he has brought to pass 
[ have seen him strive and finally secure. 
backed by our Puritan Senator, a Harbor bill 
that contained no pork barrel, an actwal re 
duction of expenses in the running of the gov- 
ernment, and a better business administration 
of the public service. I have seen his court- 
eous treatment of the little powers in Central 
America, and in spite of provocation that 
would have made us swiftly interfere under 
other administrations, keep our hands off the 
miserable little barbarians and respect their 
national life. I have seen him after ten years 
of constant effort and argument, at last per 
suade the American people to be just to the 
people of the Phillipine Islands and to Portci 
Rico, and to allow them to prosper by enter- 
ing more freely into the markets of the Re- 



public. I am proud that he — a son of New 
England, should forget all partizanship and all 
prejudice, and appoint to the highest position 
among the judges of the earth, a Confederate 
soldier and a Catholic Democrat from Louis- 
iana. His mistakes, if there have been any, 
are trivial — his achievements have been co- 
lossal. 

Some of us who follow the struggles on the 
gridiron, were thrilled last fall, when after 
a disastrous beginning, the boys from Yale 
went down into the arena to meet their old 
rivals from Princeton, and then again to con- 
tend with the most formidable foot-ball ag- 
gregation ever gotten together in an Ameri- 
can College, from Harvard. Everybody said 
Yale was doomed. The betting was against 
them — but there's a bull-dog fighting spirit 
about the old College at New Haven, of 
which dopesters failed to take account — and 
when the boys were through with Prince- 
ton, and the Harvard men went home again, 
to parody Tennyson. 

"Ever upon the topmost roof the blue ban 
ner of Eli flew." 

For Yale has a way of "coming back," and 
I present you as my final word — "The Pres- 
ident, William Howard Taft, the Modern 
Puritan." "He is from Yale, and he will come 
back." 



Bxcliani?6 

West. Res. Hist. Soc. 

1915 




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